Cuarón, Alfonso << kwah ROHN, al FON soh >> (1961-…), is a Mexican motion-picture director, screenwriter, and producer. In 2014, he won an Academy Award for best directing, for the science-fiction film Gravity (2013). Cuarón was the first Latino to win the award. He also co-wrote the film.
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on Nov. 28, 1961, in Mexico City. He studied film at the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos, the film school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. While at the school, Cuarón helped make the short film Vengeance Is Mine (1985). The film caused a controversy at the school because it was in English. As a result, Cuarón was expelled. He served as assistant director on a number of films before directing and co-writing several episodes of the Mexican television horror series “La Hora Marcada” from 1988 to 1990.
The first feature film that Cuarón directed was the romantic comedy Sólo con Tu Pareja (Love in the Time of Hysteria, 1991), which he co-wrote with his brother, Carlos. Alfonso Cuarón then moved to Los Angeles, where the American director Sydney Pollack invited him to direct an episode of the TV mystery series “Fallen Angels” in 1993.
Other notable films directed by Cuarón include A Little Princess (1995), Great Expectations (1998), Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Children of Men (2006), and The Possibility of Hope (2007). Cuarón’s film Roma (2018) won three Academy Awards, for best cinematography, directing, and foreign language film. In addition to directing, Cuarón wrote or co-wrote some of these movies.
